Cars, Cars & More Cars

[JerryBaumchen 1,046]

Hi out there,

I've been a car-nut far longer than a parachute-nut. I wrote this article for a BMW magazine back in 2004.

I hope that you find it entertaining & maybe, for some of you, a trip down Memory Lane.

Fifty Years of Motor Vehicles

It was the summer of '54. Ike was in the White House and the Korean War was behind us. A guy named Bill Haley and a group called the Comets were about to change the music world forever with a song called Rock Around the Clock. I was a gangly 13-year old with a paper route.

My brother and I had been wrenching and modifying our bicycles for about four years and seeing what length of skid marks we could put down on the sidewalk. But I wanted something other than a Pedal-Matic. So I saved my money and for about $20 bought a DoodleBug.

This was a two-wheel motor scooter about thirty inches long and about twenty-four inches high. When I sat on it, I looked like an NBA player on a 3-year old's tricycle. It had a single cylinder two-cycle engine with a straight exhaust, no muffler. It had a throttle with a slip clutch, a brake, a kick-start system and no lights or electrical system of any kind. She would do about thirty MPH flat out. Crack the throttle and you were on your way.

For about fourteen cents per gallon of gas, plus a little oil, I could fill the tank and go clear across Portland (before freeways or interstates). As long as I stayed off of the main streets, the police didn't bother me. The DoodleBug wasn`t licensed and neither was I. But, I had mobility - a life-changing event.

I had the DoodleBug for about a year, followed by (in no particular order) another motor scooter (a larger one that would carry two people), a motorcycle, a hot rod, a drag race car, two convertibles, two Porsches, two 1957 Chevy two-door hardtops, two Ford Falcons, two VW Camper vans, a Volvo, a half dozen pickups, a bunch of four-door sedans, and one airplane. I never bought any of them from private party sellers. I never financed any of them. They were all bought with cash up front. Out of all of them there are three I wish I still had.

'32 Ford 5-Window Coupe: I had this car my senior year in high school, `57-`58. It was a real steel one, not a plastic repro. I drove it home, all of five miles from where I bought it, and parked it in the garage. It had a shot 59A motor. I spent the entire year working on that car. Since the engine was kaput, I decided to take it apart to see how motors worked. I took it down to every last bolt and nut, valve spring keeper, connecting rod, etc. That was a fantastic learning experience for a 17-year old kid

'57 Chev 2-Dr Hardtop: I bought this car in 1963, I had just gotten out of the service. It was solid black and it was my second `57 Chev two-door hardtop, the first had been all white. It had been stolen about a month before I bought it and it only had Park and Drive left in the PowerGlide transmission. I limped it home, put it in the garage and converted it to a straight stick with overdrive. I even tore down the steering wheel/column and put in the column-shift. I added a toggle switch just under the dash to control the overdrive, rather than the button under the gas pedal which is the way all factory cars were set-up. This allowed me to switch into overdrive whenever I wanted to. The down side is that when in overdrive you do not have any engine compression slowing you down, you are free-wheeling. One advantage was that the toggle switch allowed me to use the hill holder feature of the overdrive. I could sit at a light, facing up-hill and let the car roll back into the hill holder and sit there with the clutch in and not use the brakes.

'65 Porsche 356C Coupe: I bought this car in the summer of `71, I had just graduated from college. This was my second Porsche coupe; I had the first one (a 356A Normal Coupe) in '62-`63 while stationed in northeastern France. I bought this one from the original owner and the passenger door had been hit and repaired and was still in primer. The seller said that he intended to repaint the door. I told him I would take it as is. I got it home and about two months later I started tearing her down for new paint. I took absolutely everything off that car and then drove it about fifty miles out into the country (try that without a windshield) to a truly exquisite body man who painted cars in his garage in his spare time. I had it painted with an acrylic lacquer in a Plymouth yellow. After I got her all back together she was just a hair from being in first class showroom condition. I then started on the engine. I converted it to full SC specs and drilled and tapped the case for a full-flow spin-on oil filter and topped everything off with a 4-pipe Ansa exhaust system.

I wish that I still had them, not because of what they would be worth today, but because of what they meant to me when I owned them. What great memories they still provide me. Today I drive a `94 Toyota pickup and a black `97 BMW 840Ci (truly the most amazing car that ! have ever owned).

That`s my first fifty years of motor vehicles. I doubt that I will get another fifty years, but I'm going to take a shot at it. So, a poll for you folks out there in BMW-land:

Any cars in your past that you wish that you still had?

End of story,

JerryBaumchen

[FlyingJ 0]

For me it's the 1989 Volvo 240DL, or my Swedish Brick. That car would just go. I put 250,000 miles on it in 3 years while going to school in Cincinnati but traveling frequently between there, NYC and Atlanta. I drove it for 8 months with just 3rd, 5th and reverse. In Cincinnati, the "City of Seven Hills" the M47 5spd transmission did just fine starting up those hills in 3rd gear.

One of my most fond memories of the car was the entirely plastic interior, including the headlining, etc. Aside from the cloth seats there wasn't a surface in the car that couldn't be sprayed and wiped down.

Once in a campground I locked my keys in the trunk. The trunk had the ability to lock independently from the rest of the doors. And it did. With my keys in it. Somewhere in the Catskill mountains. I pulled as much of the trunk contents as I could through the ski hole behind the armrest in the back seat. Sleeping bags, clothes, you name it. Finally we could see the keys, as far as they could possibly be from that ski hole opening. A variety of people tried reaching. Some with barbecue tongs, others using a walking stick. Alas, no luck. I proceeded to remove the back seat and use my leatherman tool (that I had just purchased a socket accessory for) to start taking apart the framework until we could cut through the fiberboard backing and get a shoulder through allowing us just enough extra distance to grab the keys. Throughout all of this I forgot about the bacon in a pan on the fire and ruined breakfast. I think in the end I was more upset about the bacon than the keys.

I miss that car. I replaced that transmission and moved the car to NYC with me. It just sat there. Neglected. It made for some great weekend getaways, usually to the Catskills for hiking and camping, or to NJ to visit my Grandma, but I couldn't just let it sit there and deteriorate after how good it had been to me. So I sold it.

I became desperate to sell it after it sat with a for sale sign on it for months with very little interest. The sign on the car was down to $500 when I got an email from a guy that saw my auto trader ad from months before that still said $1500. He said "it looks just like one I had and wrecked...I really want your car." He said he couldn't afford it right now but he was going to sell some stuff on ebay to be able to afford it. I asked how much he could pay cash and what was he trying to sell. He had $1,000 cash and was going to auction a dvd player, 15 dvds, a digital camera, a playstation and a few games. I told him to give me the cash and everything but the playstation and I'd save him the trouble of putting it on ebay. I felt a little bad considering I was only asking $500 on the sign at the time, but I was broke and living in NYC.

Turns out the guy was a douche that left before I took my plate off the car and racked up parking tickets in my name all over Pennsylvania. About two dozen jury summons and a warrant out for my arrest in Pennsylvania later I got it straightened out and last I heard the car had been booted, towed and impounded. Hopefully it got auctioned off to someone that would appreciate it as much as I did.

I sold it with just under 400,000 miles on it having replaced the transmission and catalytic converter around 325,000 and the computer at 340,000. Other than your regular tune-up/brakes stuff and a water pump everything else was original (if I was to believe the original owner that told me everything was original when I purchased it).

While that car would hardly be practical in my current life, I often wonder if I might someday run into it again, and look with a bit of angst when I see a maroon 240 driving down the street.

Killing threads since 2004.

[JerryBaumchen 1,046]

Hi Flying,

I owned a Maroon '75 Volvo 240DL 4-dr for 13 yrs. Did an awful lot of maintenance on that car.

Had it longer than any other car I've owned.



JerryBaumchen

PS) For many years I saw this car driving around Portland with license plates that said OVLOV. I could never figure what they meant & then one day he was behind me at a light & VOILA, VOLVO backwards. Yup, the plates were on a Volvo.

[FlyingJ 0]

One thing I definitely appreciated was the existence of a Bentley "Bible" and the fact hat you could practically sit inside the engine compartment while working on anything under the hood.

After leaving NYC my first car was a Dodge Intrepid that was so convoluted you might as well have had to pull the engine block just to change the oil Made me really appreciate the ol' Volvo.

That's an awesome license plate.

Killing threads since 2004.